Chapter 3 => My Decision

After a long and careful deliberation that spanned the entire night…

I still hadn’t come to a decision.

No, I did, just that I was having some lingering doubts.

I was standing in the living room, in front of dad who was smiling ever so smugly. It really stung whenever he looked so full of himself.

“Ah, Kazuki. What brings you here?” dad asked, while wriggling his eyebrows.

The heck does he mean by “brings you here?” I live in this house for starters. And in case you’ve forgotten, I’m also your son!

“You can tell me anything. I won’t judge.” Dad leaned forward on the sofa with his fingers clasped. He was enjoying all of this a bit too much.

I sighed, squeezing my fists, trying to choose my next words carefully.

“I’ll be going on a little trip to Egypt.”

Dad blinked, as if confused. “Is that all…?”

“Yeah…”

“You’re sure you’re telling me everything?”

“Mm-hmm…”

“Tch. You really are a tsundere…” Dad muttered to himself, looking away from me.

Stop calling me that, old man!

“Well, if that’s all you wanted to tell me, then I guess it’s fine.” With a relaxed smile, dad slid back comfortably into the sofa. He was the very definition of vegged out right now.

Wait a minute… I just told him that I wanted to travel all the way to Egypt, and his reaction was like I’d simply told him I was taking a walk down the block.

Couldn’t he show a little more concern?

“Oh, and as for your travel expenses, I’ll help cover—”

“Nope. I’ve already got it covered,” I cut dad off.

I wasn’t going to let him go on having the upper hand. So, I pulled out one of my trump cards, which I had never given much thought until recently.

Ever since I was little, there was this quirk of mine. No, not “that” kind of quirk from that shounen series.

I’d had a strange habit of saving money.

Of course, the behavior in itself wasn’t the unusual bit.

It was the sheer scale of it.

For example, if someone saved up to ten thousand yen every month for sixteen years, they’d have about two million yen stored up, right?

Well, I won’t deny it. My parents tended to splurge quite a bit on me. So, all the pocket money, allowances, gifts from relatives, pay from part time jobs—I stashed the majority of it away consistently.

I didn’t have any particular goal I sought to achieve. The only motive I had behind it was: why not just save up a little?

Dad in the past would always smack me hard on the back laughing, spouting something along the lines of “HA-HA! You definitely are my son. Saving up for when you may need to go on a surprise expedition or quest I see! HA-HA-HA…”

I rolled my eyes at the memory.

So, as of today, I had roughly eight million yen stored up. Nothing too grand, but enough to get some decent work done.

“Oh? You’ll cover it yourself? Then at least let me give you something I’ve been saving for a special occasion!”

Dad jumped off the sofa, and dashed inside…

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You know, when dad mentioned “special occasion”, I was half-expecting it to be—who am I kidding? This was all within my expectations.

Smiling like a giddy teen, my dad held up a trench coat to my face. Yes, a trench coat.

“See this, my boy? This right here is the best of its kind. It’s highly durable, able to resist high temperatures, tears, penetrating attacks and much more! It’s easy to move in, too!”

He went on like a salesman trying to close a deal.

Meanwhile, I studied the piece of clothing.

Without a doubt, the long, beige trench coat looked sleek and stylish. Not bad at all. If I put it on, it would surely drape all the way to my feet.

Other than looking good, I didn’t see anything to justify making such a fuss over it.

“And have a look inside!”

Dad opened it up, showing me the inner craftsmanship.

My eyes grew wide as I counted over twenty pockets, and there were still more left… Why’d anyone need that many pockets in the first place?!

“Impressive? I know!” He shoved the coat to my chest. “I’m giving you one of my prized possessions from my heydays. One that I’m passing down as a father, to my son…”

His smile was too warm. I felt my defenses melt a pinch, and I smiled back as I held it in my hands.

“Thanks…”

Argh! Dad’s done it again! Making me do his bidding. His old grin is back. It’s literally saying that the outcome of the battle had already been decided. Dammit!

I was back in my room, doing the last of my research. Before embarking on any journey, knowing what expenses would arise would be a great help.

Naturally, I’d want to see just how much it would cost me on a round trip.

Scratching my chin, I studied the figures on my screen.

¥250,000…

The amount seemed fair enough, but I still felt uneasiness at the prospect of parting with that sum. Oh well… Money is meant to be spent, right?

I’ll have to book a flight from Tokyo to Cairo, huh? Oh, there aren’t any direct flights, so there’ll be a layover at Dubai partway. Hmm…

Okay. Flight tickets aside, I should also consider buying a camera, too. Maybe a DSLR model? Mom wouldn’t be happy if she found out I went all the way to Egypt, crossing over continents, and didn’t even bother to take a single photo.

The camera is a must-have. I nodded at my decision.

With that, I had finalized the purchase of the tickets, and looked up a shop where I’d pick up a fancy camera to take some nice pictures along my travels.

By Friday next week, I’d be on my way to the airport.

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The days went by like a breeze.

My flight was scheduled for 8:30 AM, JST. So, I had spent the last week meticulously packing, ensuring not to forget anything.

Which, now that I thought about it, wasn’t as demanding as I believed it would be. Only a few shirts, some trousers, and a couple of shoes.

My toothbrush, my passport, along with the notebook and trench coat that dad had given me. It went without saying that my travel box was incredibly light and compact.

“Go get ‘em, son!”

“Don’t do anything stupid…and make sure you come back safe.”

Dad was bellowing, clapping me hard on my back, while my sister issued her kind and benevolent orders for my safe return.

We’d left pretty early, around 5:30 AM, giving us some time to spare to say our goodbyes. Mom had called on our way over, saying, “My little baby is all grown up now! Please be a good boy for mommy and take care of yourself! Don’t forget to take lots of pictures, okay?...”

She was on the phone for essentially the whole ride here…

Waving at my dad and sister, I started walking into Terminal 1 at the Narita International Airport. Large electronic billboards hung high above me. And a lot of the signs were bilingual.

Scanning through the crowd, I caught sight of my airline’s counter.

The small bag slung across my shoulder, and the lightweight travel box I pulled were my only pieces of luggage. I dropped off the box, and received my boarding pass.

I had to have my bag checked during the security screening. They checked my camera, and to my dismay, the notebook, too.

But, to my surprise, no one other than our family members could make sense of my dad’s chicken scratch, so they deemed me good to go.

And now, I was seated in the wide departure hall, waiting patiently for boarding time to arrive. This was going to be my first international flight, so naturally I was a little excited.

Then, I heard an announcement over the speakers.

“Flight QR 8167 to Cairo via Dubai is now boarding at Gate 42,” said the female voice in an eloquent manner. The message was also repeated in English, too.

I smirked, thinking, 6… 7…

Both my hands made a seesaw motion. And looking around, a couple other passengers waiting did likewise.

After that, everyone had boarded the plane. I had a wing seat—specifically, the right wing seat. Doing one last check of the contents in my bag, I tucked it into the overhead bin.

The plane started taxiing down the runway, the engines humming steadily as we inched forward along the tarmac. A flight attendant gave some last minute safety reminders.

Just when the plane was about to begin accelerating to achieve lift-off, I wondered…

Looks like there’s no turning back now, huh…?

Then the plane took off…